


Smoke on the Water

by Xparrot



Category: One Piece
Genre: Arabasta, Ficlet, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-05
Updated: 2004-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-19 14:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xparrot/pseuds/Xparrot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tomorrow it will be a new age. And you'll be part of it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Before Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> 2 ficlets, posted on [onepieceyaoi100](http://onepieceyaoi100.livejournal.com/) but not really on-topic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I find housecleaning oddly inspiring. Emphasis on odd. Not a laundry-fic, and not exactly a pairing, either. Might expand on it later; for now...

His head didn't raise as the boy entered, his eyes hidden under the thick hair, but his gruff growl, low and amused, sounded through the bars. "Back again? Aren't you young for a crush, boy? I must be older than your father."

"It's tomorrow."

"I've been told."

"You aren't going to escape?"

"Are you here to free me?"

"No."

"A strange thing, then. What's the punishment for a thief who breaks back into jail?"

"I'm no thief!"

"Of course not. You only stole because you were hungry. Need always excuses crime. Unlike me, who has no excuse."

"You could break out. The guards are lazy..."

"You'd like me to escape. Why? To catch me yourself?"

"Why won't you?"

"Why are you here, boy?"

"I don't have to tell you."

"Then why should I tell you?"

"...You're different. From all of them. Everything you've done...no one man could have. Just stories, I thought. But now..."

"You'll be there tomorrow, right, boy?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll understand. For now, here."

"What's this?"

"Something I picked up there. A souvenir. It's your choice, boy. But if you're serious about becoming a marine, your criminal record won't matter, with that. Devil fruit eaters are automatically officers."

"This--"

"Those stories are true, too. If you ever want to swim again, don't eat. But otherwise, swallow every bite."

"Why me?"

"Because you're here. Because you're asking. You'll need to be strong."

"Tomorrow--"

"Watch carefully," and finally his eyes raised to the boy. "Tomorrow, it will be a new age, boy. And you'll be part of it. You thought I was a legend, but the real legends are about to begin. Eat the moku moku fruit, or don't eat it. Either way, after tomorrow, neither you nor anything in this world will ever be the same..."


	2. The Price of Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially tried to do this for last week's topic, didn't quite manage it, then or now, but I needs to be to bed so what is here will have to stand. Takes place at the end of ep 109, a personal favorite of mine.

Pirates have tried to negotiate with him before. _"If I tell you where to find my captain, you won't hang me?"_ or _"I surrendered when I could've killed half your men, isn't that worth something?"_ And maybe it is, but that kind of pathetic, sniggering bribe is not even a dint in the price of justice. Still, he's repaid every debt he's ever owed. Every debt but one, in his thirty years.

There is something that may supersede justice; there is honesty to one's self, to where one owes one's honor. But that's a debt can never be bought or bargained for; never be demanded, never be connived. Never be repaid, not to a man long dead, who made him everything that he is; but what he is now, he is sure to never earn another.

Or was sure, but now he should be dead and instead he's coughing up water, furious, because the price of his life is a high thing, one he shouldn't spend so casually. Better to drown, than to owe these wild young monsters. What recompense will they demand, what further humiliation--

"Just his whim," the swordsman says. "Forget it."

Impossible; no pirate takes less than everything he can grasp. But then the captain is awake, ready for battle, and in his eyes no acknowledgment at all, no expectation, no demand. He's immature and imprudent and quite mad, but he knows too well the price of things.

He lets them go, but it's too little, too late, not enough to settle the score. Far too high a price--that which is priceless cannot be bought, but can be owed all the same. Two debts on him now, and staring into the setting sun he wonders if he'll ever manage to repay this pirate king.


End file.
